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Thurgood Marshall College Fund President and CEO Johnny Taylor Jr. is taking aim at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, saying that the advocacy group’s longstanding opposition to charter school development is harmful to black communities, and HBCUs looking to grow in the alternative education enterprise.

Howard University, for example, started a charter school called Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science, which is preparing the next generation of leaders for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

This area of focus is of particular importance because African-Americans receive just 7.6 percent of all STEM bachelor’s degrees and 4.5 percent of doctorates in STEM.

Another example of HBCUs taking matters into their own hands can be found in Tallahassee’s Florida A&M University, which opened the Developmental Research School in 1877. The Research School gives a nationally competitive college preparatory education to each of its students and serves as a state-of-the-art laboratory for education innovation.

While local chapters of the NAACP have been instrumental in advancing pro-HBCU policy in North Carolina, Florida and other states, the national office has no references to HBCUs in its educational position portal.

The NAACP works to ensure that all disadvantaged students and students of color are on the path to college or a successful career by ensuring access to great teaching, equitable resources, and a challenging curriculum. We are dedicated to eliminating the severe racial inequities that continue to plague our education system.